Why ‘Scared-y Cat’ John Krasinski entered ‘A Quiet Place’

John Krasinski has never been a fan of the horror genre, which made him an unlikely choice to direct and star in the upcoming horror-thriller film A Quiet Place. “I’ve always been a scared-y cat when it comes to watching horror films,” admits Krasinski. “I do enjoy classic horror and suspense films, and when I read the script for A Quiet Place, I thought that it had the potential to be a classic horror film.”

In the film, Krasinski and his real-life wife, actress Emily Blunt, play a husband and wife who, along with their two children, live on a remote farm in upstate New York, hiding from a supernatural presence that feeds off any sound. “When I read the script, I thought it was scary, and it had a cool hook, but what really attracted me to the project was that the story was a metaphor for parenting and the fears associated with parenting, which I knew that everyone who is a parent could identify with,” says Krasinski. “That struck a chord with me because I have two small children, and I would do anything to protect them. This is what my character, Lee, is dealing with throughout the film.”

After reading the original Bryan Woods-Scott Beck script, which Krasinski rewrote prior to the start of filming, Krasinski believed that he was the best person to direct the film. “I felt like I was the best person to direct this film because of what I brought to this project, in terms of my own parenting experience, and I felt like I knew how to rewrite the script, and direct the film, in a way that would generate the maximum amount of suspense and tension,” says Krasinski, whose last feature directorial outing was the 2016 comedy-drama The Hollars. “This film is about parenting and protecting your children from evil. The approach I took to directing this film was that I wanted the film to be scary, obviously, but I also wanted the film to have an inspiring, true vision.”

As the title suggests, silence plays a crucial role in the film. “Silence is the film,” says Krasinski. “Silence is everything in the film. Silence means different things in our lives, and silence can have a good and bad connotation to it. Sometimes you have to stay silent because something bad is chasing after you, which is what the family in the film is dealing with. But you can’t stay silent forever. How long could you stay silent? What if your life depended on it?”

David Grove is an author, journalist and a produced screenwriter from Vancouver. He’s the author of the books Making Friday the 13th, Fantastic 4: The Making of the Movie, Jamie Lee Curtis: Scream Queen, On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th, and Jan-Michael Vincent: Edge of Greatness.